Scripture Union Discovery 10th March 2025 Devotional Message for Monday
TOPIC: Not From Galilee?
Opening Prayer
Lord, tune my heart to yours; use your Word to instruct me and help me to follow you without distraction, without compromise.
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Read JOHN 7:40–52
40 On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.”
41 Others said, “He is the Messiah.”
Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?”
46 “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied.
47 “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted. 48 “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.”
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?”
52 They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”
Reflect
‘Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name’ (Psalm 86:11).
Unlike Matthew and Luke, John doesn’t tell us about Jesus’ birth, so this is the only time in his gospel that Bethlehem is mentioned. It is an intriguing bit of dramatic irony where the Pharisees are saying that Jesus can’t possibly be the Messiah because the prophets say that the Messiah must come from Bethlehem. John is expecting his readers to be shouting, ‘But Jesus is from Bethlehem!’
The Pharisees think that they know everything about Jesus. They know his parents and family; they know the region of Israel in which he has been brought up. None of this measures up to their idea of what the Messiah should look like. Their prejudice against Jesus’ background has blinded them to the miracles that he has performed and his accomplished preaching which dazzles the crowds. Coming from Jerusalem, we might even call them the metropolitan elite. They have contempt for the crowd that is uneducated, and dissenting voices like Nicodemus are quickly shouted down (v. 52).
At the beginning of his gospel, John tells us that Jesus came to his own but his own did not receive him (John 1:11). Perhaps Jesus’ background was simply too ordinary for them to see God at work.
Apply
In our desire to see God do spectacular things, do we sometimes miss what he is doing in the ordinary?
Closing prayer
Father, give me more sensitive eyes to see miracles you perform each day. Help me to appreciate and marvel at even the smallest evidences of your handiwork—work that only you can do.
Scripture Union Discovery 10th March 2025 Devotional © 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved
